Crystal Clear
by Ark9
Summary: After competing in the Johto League, Ash comes home to get a break. What he doesn't count on is all of the work his mom gives him as well as a very special gift...
1. Getting the prize

Pokémon does not belong to me __

Pokémon does not belong to me!

Ages?

Ash/Gary are 13, Misty's 14, Brock/Tracey are 16, Delia Ketchum and Samuel Oak are…old enough. ^_~

Crystal Clear

By Ark9

Chapter One

It was a normal day for Ash. He had won the Johto League a few days ago and his mom threw a small party for him in Pallet. Misty, Brock, Tracey, Professor Oak and his mom had all come. Actually, _Gary_ had even come. It was exciting. Gary seemed to have stopped being so snotty and he and Gary were friends again…well, maybe that was stretching it, but they were not rivals, anyway. Misty left for Cinnabar to train her pokémon.

"Reality check," he thought, "Cinnabar has turned into a tourist attraction!" He knew that she wouldn't come back without having trained hard, though. The best guess was that she decided to surf out to the Seafoam Islands.

Brock? Well, he heard about Suzie's success from one of Professor Oak's pokémon magazines and now is raring to compete. In the meantime, he decided to go back to Goldenrod, because there's a rumor that dittos live in the grass south of Goldenrod City.

Tracey is enjoying himself, studying with his idol, Professor Oak. His sketches are very helpful when they study the changes in the pokémon as well. Professor Oak appreciated the help and also having an actual _person_ to have his afternoon tea with.

Ash stayed with his mom for a while to take a break from training. He _thought_ that it would be a break. After getting another five hundred pounds of fertilizer, he realized that it wouldn't be such a break.

Now, he was up in his room. It was just as messy as before he had left it. His broken clock lay on his bedside table. His bed was a disarray of blankets, pillows, and sheets. His TV still sat on his dressers and a few pokémon figures sat around it. Needless to say, everything was covered in dust.

Unhappily he sat down heavily on his bed, his weight causing him to sink slightly into the bed. He let himself fall forwards onto his pillow into a thoughtful position. He could still remember that night, when he was supposed to get his first pokémon. He would have been fine the next morning if he hadn't been so excited that it invaded his dreams and caused him to throw his clock across the room. That poor clock. He'd have to see if he could get another one.

"Ash! You're supposed to _clean_ your room, not stare at it sadly!" his mom scolded, teasing her little boy. "No sympathy will come from dust!"

He smiled at his mom's mocking words. "I know," he replied. "I was just thinking about last time I was here. I should get a new clock." He laughed and pointed to the broken item on his table.

"Oh!" she joined him laughing. "Is this the thing whose fault it is that you were late to get your first pokémon?"

"Hey! It was my fault for throwing it in my sleep, I guess," he contemplated, "but I'm kind of glad that I did, because otherwise I never would have ended up with a pokémon like Pikachu!"

"Pika!" a voice chirped from behind Mrs. Ketchum and seconds later Pikachu ran under her to Ash.

"Hey, Pikachu!" Ash welcomed it, held it in his arms, and looked back at his mom. "So did you come up here to tell me to keep working, or something else?"  


"I almost forgot," she replied. "I have something for you."

"Pika?" it looked forward in wonder as she removed a small something from her pocket.

It was almost invisible as Ash looked at it from across the room. A clear snowflake-like pendent hung on a thin fish-wire string, equally clear.

"What is it?" Ash asked curiously.

"It's a charm that _my_ mom gave to me when I was about your age," she replied brightly. "Do you like it?"

Ash hesitated. "Don't you think that it's kind of…you know…girlish?" he asked cautiously, dreading her reply.

"Gary has a charm," his mother replied, frowning, "and he's got a whole bunch of girls cooing over him!"

"Yeah, but his is a Ying-yang, not some sort of snow-flake!" Ash whined back.

"Oh, for goodness' sake!" his mother called out. "You can put it under your T-shirt if you want to. I just want you to have it to remember me."

"I couldn't forget you, mom." Ash smiled. "Alright. I'll wear it, but no one's going to _see_ it, okay?"

Mrs. Ketchum wiped small tears of happiness out of her eyes. "Thank you, Ash. You won't regret it. It's special. You'll see."

"Sure mom," Ash replied, half-sarcastically.

"Well, I had better go so that you can clean your room," she recovered and smiled her normal perky smile.

"_Mo-om!_" Ash complained. "I don't want to clean my room! I need to train my pokémon! Pikachu's going to hardly be able to walk if it keeps eating ketchup all day long and doesn't battle! Please, mom? For Pikachu?"

"All right," she consented. "But this is only because I think you're right about Pikachu. Plus, then I can spoil it later!" She giggled and went back to the kitchen.

"Ready, Pikachu?" Ash asked as he tucked the charm under his shirt and beamed at his pokémon.

"Pi-_ka_!" it cried and clenched its fists, sparkles flying within a few inches of its rosy cheeks.

"Let's go!"

/\ /\/\ /\ /\ /\/\ /\

\ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / /

/ ^ . ^ \/ ^ . ~ \/ ^ . ^ \/ ^ . ~ \

\ '-'-' /\ '-'-' /\ '-'-' /\ '-'-' /

"This place has sure changed a lot hasn't it, Pikachu?" Ash asked as they head out into the forest outside of Pallet.

"Chu?" it cocked its head to the side and looked up at him curiously. It didn't remember this place much at all. Maybe that's because he was thinking about his own home before. Well, he was on his own, enjoying his childish adventures, but not here. Here was where he was looking for a way to escape…but only found Ash demanding his attention and an explanation for why he didn't trust the clueless boy.

"Maybe we just changed," Ash decided. "I wouldn't remember much of it either, except that when I was little, Professor Oak would take Gary and I out here. We couldn't go by ourselves because of the wild pokémon. Professor Oak fought them off if they came near. Usually they stayed away for fear of being caught, though."

Pikachu nodded. He remembered that feeling, himself.

"I wished that they didn't, actually," Ash said and grinned. "Never was very smart, was I, Pikachu?"

Pikachu just looked up and away in a "yes, but I'm not going to say it," look.

"Oh, well. I'll learn. You'll see." Once again his attention was directed ahead until he saw a small cocoon-shaped object hanging from a tree.

Pikachu saw it too. "Chu!" it shouted and pointed to the metapod.

"Want to battle it?" Ash asked.

"PI!" Pikachu growled and clenched its fists. Sparks flew from its cheeks as it took the two steps in front of Ash. Eyes narrowed, it issued the challenge with a single spark that didn't cause pain, but gave the metapod a message; _battle!_

The metapod dislodged itself from the branch and landed on the ground across from Pikachu. It looked annoyed. It looked up at Ash and assumed him to be the pokémon's trainer by his stance.

Ash flipped his hat around on his head and then looked the metapod in the eye. Suddenly, his skin prickled with heat and a burning sensation began in the middle of his collarbone. He pulled out the source, the necklace that his mom had given him.

__

"He really does love pokémon!" the wind whispered spookily in Misty's voice. He looked in the middle of the pendant and noticed that a picture had been somehow put inside the middle. He was smiling to something that didn't show in its small view, he guessed must have been Pikachu and by the scenery, his Metapod. "Metapod…" he whispered sadly. Misty was the main focused of the picture as she looked thoughtfully at him. Who took this picture?

"Chu!" Pikachu screeched as it instinctively used its agility to dodge the metapod's strings. "Duh, it's a metapod," Pikachu thought to itself as it continued its dance and waited for an order.

Ash snapped back into attention at the sound of Pikachu's voice and tucked it back into his T-shirt. He'd ask his mom about it later. The heat died down, but he didn't notice as he looked determinedly at the battle scene and called out the order.

"Thundershock!"

"Piiiiii kkaaaaaa CHEE-OW!"

The metapod lay a few feet away, swirls in its eyes. Ash thought about capturing it to see if it did something to him or the pendant, but decided against it. What could a metapod have done from that far away?

"Come on!" Ash yelled as he ran ahead. "Let's find more opponents for you, Pikachu!"

"Chu?" it looked ahead warily and then followed him. It just hoped that they weren't all that easy.

/\ /\/\ /\ /\ /\/\ /\

\ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / /

/ ^ . ^ \/ ^ . ~ \/ ^ . ^ \/ ^ . ~ \

\ '-'-' /\ '-'-' /\ '-'-' /\ '-'-' /

After a few battles with baby pokémon in the grass that surrounded Pallet Town, Ash decided that it would probably be best to go home and see if it was okay with his mom if he went further tomorrow. In the mean time…

"Chu! Chu! Chu! Chu!" Pikachu chanted as it moved to an almost invisible state because of moving so fast.

"Wow, Pikachu," Ash praised. "You're getting really fast with that agility. What do you think about running out further tomorrow to find a little stronger pokémon? I don't think that you're going to get much experience from these pokémon."

"Pi-ka!" it agreed and then resumed its chant.

Ash tried to keep track of it to pick it up, but found it impossible. Pikachu then decided to play a game. Double Team was its name. About twenty grinning Pikachu danced out of his reach. Ash would think that it was one, but as soon as he grabbed it, it disappeared.

Smirking, he tackled one. Then he dusted himself off, ran to catch up and caught another one. Frustrated, he dived onto another one. Again, it was no good.

"I'll get you eventually," Ash challenged.

"Ch-ch-chu," they all nodded, not quite at the same time.

In the end he picked all of the wrong ones first. It always seemed to happen that way and it was aggravating. But it was satisfying, too.

Unfortunately, as soon as he got it narrowed down to one Pikachu, his house was only twenty or so meters away. Building up a cloud of dust, the two charged into the front door and into Ash's mother.

The dust settled and Mrs. Ketchum was immediately back on her feet. Pikachu sat and rubbed the back of his head, Ash was doing the same.

"What is all of this commotion about?" she demanded.

"Um, Pikachu and I were playing a game," Ash said nervously. "I was trying to catch it, and it was doing its best to stay out of my reach. The only problem was… we didn't slow down to come into the house."

Pikachu sweat-dropped and Mrs. Ketchum face-faulted. "Is that right, Pikachu?" she asked the mouse pokémon.

"Chu," it nodded in a sad tone.

Mrs. Ketchum sighed. "Well, I guess you two should go upstairs and get ready for dinner." She suddenly brightened. "Gary and Professor Oak are coming over for dinner. Won't that be fun?"

Ash gave her a doubtful glance. "If you say so, Mom."

"Did you have a good time training?"

"Well…we had an fine time, but there are only baby pokémon around here. Actually, we were wondering if we could go again tomorrow, except go further and camp out or something."

"I don't know, Ash. You need to get that room cleaned up. If you do that then I guess I'll give you a day off. But not until then!" she finished, sternly.

Ash groaned and then headed up the stairs, Pikachu trailing behind him. It was going to be another silent dinner, with the exception of his mother's and Professor Oak's chatter about whatever the topic had been in the talk show that he and a younger girl named Mary, ran.

And he was right.

He walked up to his room, not quite worn out, yet. He added his backpack to the mess and sat down on his sheets. Suddenly thinking about something, he stood back up again and stripped the bed. He'd have to sleep on the couch, again. These needed to be washed. Badly.

He scrunched them into as small of a ball as he could and walked down his stairs to the living room and around the corner to the laundry room. He shoved his blanket, sheets and pillow case all into the washer and selected "super load." Then he poured some detergent onto the top of the linens and closed the lid before hitting the "start" button.

A whirling noise announced the start of the wash cycle. He smiled. There was no way he was going to stay home…and the sooner he could get away from his mother's demands, the better. Who knows what she'd think of to keep him occupied in something "useful," but not what would grant his freedom. But his eyes started to droop and he knew that he probably wouldn't get it done tonight.

It was worth a try, anyway.


	2. author's note

**If you want these to continue, review. **(If you review, there is little need to read the rest of this.)

All right, I know you're not _technically_ supposed to upload author's notes as chapters, but this will be taken down eventually. I haven't decided how long yet.

I started these stories several years ago when I really loved pokemon, but then I moved, lost my disk on which these stories were saved, and never decided to try to rewrite them. About a year ago, I found the disk and uploaded a chapter that I had already written just to see what the response was. The groups of people had changed and my author buddies had moved on to more mature programs (like me, I suppose) and it didn't seem like there was any reason to finish them where I had left off before.

So, since I have gotten a few reviews out of nowhere lately and I seem to have new people that like my writing, I'm considering rewriting everything. If anyone wants anything to continue, say so; otherwise, don't look for these to be finished.


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